The Peoria Zoo’s oldest lions are still going strong after more than 130 years.

They don’t need much food or care, either — thanks to Otto Triebel.

In 1853, the 23-year-old German sculptor arrived in Peoria. Otto Triebel and Sons, a successful dealer in stone, was contracted by the county to build a low stone wall around the courthouse in 1870.

Nine years later, Triebel decided to take a chance creatively and craft two stone lions. As he worked, he aimed to attract a specific buyer.

“Mr. Triebel intends to make them so handsome that the (County) Board of Supervisors will not be able to resist the temptation to buy them,” according to the Peoria Daily Democrat.

His gambit succeeded, and the lions stretched along the Adams Street side of the courthouse for more than eight decades. But in 1963, the Peoria County Courthouse was razed, and the lions needed a new home.

The Peoria Park District came to the rescue and relocated the Triebel Lions to the zoo, where they have stood outside the front entrance for more than a half-century.

Triebel, a prominent citizen who served terms as city treasurer and county supervisor, gave Peoria another iconic creation: son Frederick Ernst “Fritz” Triebel, likely the city’s greatest artist. The son’s legacy includes the Soldiers and Sailors Monument in the Courthouse Plaza and the Robert Ingersoll statue in Glen Oak Park.